Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. Grows Stake in Halliburton (NYSE:HAL)

Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. grew its holdings in shares of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) by 3.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 98,330 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,830 shares during the period. Tocqueville Asset Management L.P.’s holdings in Halliburton were worth $2,674,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its stake in Halliburton by 244.5% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 4,513,560 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $138,025,000 after buying an additional 3,203,224 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Halliburton by 23.1% during the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 16,782,174 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $487,522,000 after acquiring an additional 3,150,986 shares in the last quarter. Amundi raised its position in shares of Halliburton by 22.2% in the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 13,068,025 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $353,242,000 after purchasing an additional 2,378,043 shares during the last quarter. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC purchased a new stake in Halliburton during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $55,132,000. Finally, OFI Invest Asset Management purchased a new stake in Halliburton during the 4th quarter worth approximately $32,683,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Halliburton

In related news, Director Margaret Katherine Banks sold 3,900 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.04, for a total transaction of $93,756.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 10,551 shares in the company, valued at $253,646.04. This represents a 26.99 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, VP Timothy Mckeon sold 10,497 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.60, for a total value of $258,226.20. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 77,784 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,913,486.40. The trade was a 11.89 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 206,782 shares of company stock valued at $5,321,170 in the last three months. 0.61% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on HAL shares. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on shares of Halliburton from $42.00 to $37.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on Halliburton from $43.00 to $41.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Benchmark reduced their price objective on Halliburton from $40.00 to $35.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on Halliburton from $39.00 to $34.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $34.00 price target on shares of Halliburton in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $37.42.

Halliburton Price Performance

NYSE:HAL opened at $24.99 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.69 billion, a PE ratio of 8.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.84. Halliburton has a 52 week low of $23.42 and a 52 week high of $41.56. The company has a quick ratio of 1.54, a current ratio of 2.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $26.45 and its 200-day moving average price is $28.16.

Halliburton Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 5th will be given a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.72%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 5th. Halliburton’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 24.03%.

About Halliburton

Halliburton Company provides products and services to the energy industry worldwide. It operates through two segments, Completion and Production, and Drilling and Evaluation. The Completion and Production segment offers production enhancement services that include stimulation and sand control services; cementing services, such as well bonding and casing, and casing equipment; and completion tools that offer downhole solutions and services, including well completion products and services, intelligent well completions, and service tools, as well as liner hanger, sand control, and multilateral systems.